Largely ignored throughout the author’s lifetime, the tales of Edgar Allan Poe remain masterpieces of the short story genre more than a century after their original publication. The precursor of modern psychological writing, the detective story, and science fiction, Poe’s stories appear astonishingly modem to the contemporary reader. Compiled here in their entirety, they form the heart of this outstanding collection...

Largely ignored throughout the author’s lifetime, the tales of Edgar Allan Poe remain masterpieces of the short story genre more than a century after their original publication. The precursor of modern psychological writing, the detective story, and science fiction, Poe’s stories appear astonishingly modem to the contemporary reader. Compiled here in their entirety, they form the heart of this outstanding collection.

Having perfected the short story to a degree never before achieved, Poe set a mood from the very first sentence and created a tension which captivates the reader to the very last word. His tales of horror, for which he is best known, are filled with the nightmarish images of death, corruption, and insanity that relentlessly haunted him. Obsessed with the theme of death--premature burial in particular--Poe painted chilling pictures of horror in "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Premature Burial," "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Pit and the Pendulum."

Poe’s remarkable insight into the dark recesses of the mind is also evident in his detective stories. He is credited with establishing this genre, and his character C. August Dupin is a forerunner of Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, and a host of other clever detectives. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Roget," and "The Purloined Letter" are among the best of these stories.

Foreword

MS. Found in a Bottle

Berenice

Morella

Some Passages in the Life of a Lion (Lionizing) 

The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall

The Assignation (The Visionary)

Bon-Bon

Shadow: A Parable

Loss of Breath: A Tale Neither In nor

Out of"Blackwood"

King Pest: A Tale Containing an Allegory

Metzengerstein

Le Duc De rOmelette

Four Beasts in One; The Homo-Cameleopard

A Tale of Jerusalem

Mystification

Ligeia

How to Write a Blackwood Article

A Predicament: The Scythe of Time

Silence: A Fable

The Journal of Julius Rodman

The Devil in the Belfry

The Man That Was Used Up

The Fall of the House of Usher

William Wilson

The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion

Why the Little Frenchman Wears

His Hand in a Sling

The Business Man

The Man in the Crowd

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

A Descent into the Maelstr6m

The Island of the Fav

The Colloquy of Monos and Una

Never Bet the Devil Your Head

Three Sundays a Week

Eleonora

The Oval Portrait

The Masque of the Red Death

The Mystery of Marie Roget

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Gold- Bug

The Black Cat

Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences

A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

The Spectacles

The Balloon-Hoax

Mesmeric Revelation

The Premature Burial

The Oblong Box

The Angel of the Odd

Thou Art the Man

The Purloined Letter

The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq

The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

Some Words with a Mummy

The Power of Words

The Imp of the Perverse

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether

The Sphinx

The Cask of Amontillado

The Domain of Arnheim

Mellonta Tauta

Hop-Frog

X-ing a Paragrab

Von Kempelen and His Discovery

Landor’s Cottage

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS

The Raven

The Bells

Annabel Lee

Lenore

Eulalie--A Song

To Helen

A Dream Within a Dream

Ulalume

Sonnet--To Science

AI Aaraaf

To the River

To My Mother

To Helen

The Lake--To--

Catholic Hymn

Stanzas

Song

Fairy-Land

For Annie 

The Sleeper

Bridal Ballad

ToM--

To One in Paradise

The Haunted Palace

The City in the Sea

The Conqueror Worm

To F--sS. O--d

Dreams

ToF--

Eldorado

To M.L.S--